Pakistan: absuelven a miembros de un clan acusados de violación

Un caso testigo, el de Mukhtaran Mai, atacada por un clan como represalia por actos de su hermano de 12 años, violada y dejada casi muerta, en lugar de suicidarse como la mayoría de las mujeres Pakistaníes en igual situación, se convirtió en lider del respeto de los derechos humanos para las mujeres de su país.

Accolades

Mukhtaran Mai was attacked on the orders of the powerful Mastoi clan as a punishment because her brother - 12 at the time - had allegedly been having an affair with a Mastoi woman. This, they said, had brought shame to the entire clan.

An illiterate villager in the eastern province of Punjab, Mukhtaran Mai could have gone the way of many other Pakistani women who are raped, committing suicide.

Instead, she battled against her initial suicidal feelings and began a lengthy legal battle, which has since won her human rights accolades and an iconic status for women's rights in the country.

She runs a school for girls in her village, and has vowed that Thursday's ruling will not force her to leave her home.

"Life and death are in the hands of Allah... I will not shut my school and other projects," she told Reuters news agency.